The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-01-08
ORIENTAL KITES.
CHICAGO CHINAME.N KEEPING
4 NATIONAL HOLIDAY,
Taking Large Kites of Many Gro
tesIuc Forms Out on the
Prairie and Flying Them
A Queer Exhibition.

carly hour on the day in question an oc-
casional Chinaman carrying an unwieldy
aud mysterious looking bundle took one
of the Madison or Randolph street cars
and went to the end of the route. Each
one as he arrived disnounted and wendell
his way in westerly direction, but none
of the busy conductors was aware that
common point was their destination.
Such was the case, however, and before
the autumn sun had begun to shine very
strongly they were gathered to the num-
Der OF score or more on a sloping piece
Of ground a short distance outside the
city limits.
Then a queer movement began. Each
celestial. having made variety of elab-
crate salu' atoms toward the east, turned
his attention to his parcel and COM
menced to gravely undo the fastenings. A
Neus reporter, who happened to be an
unseen observer, fully expected to see a
quantity of long tailed shirts, linen cuffs,
collars, ETC., produced and new method
of bleaching exhibited to his wondering
gaze. But still greater surprise was in
store. From each newspaper wrapper a
brand-ncw and deliberately constructed
moments the cords were adjusted, and
score of pig-tails were streaming in the
morning breeze as the orientals scam
pered nimbly around in every dire tion
tryingto 'raise the wind" and hoist their
strange playthings upon their wings.
And curious looking batch of contriv-
ances they were. 1t was no ordinary
school-boy's kite that John Chinaman
was dispofting himself with on the Chi
cago plairies this fine morning. They
were of all shapes and sizes, cunningly
manufa, tured and deliberately ora
mented. Birds, fish, scrpents, dragons,
and, in fact, every kind of imaginable
animal and reptile were represented.
One big laundryman, with q huge
queue and the most curly pointed of
wooden shoes, kicked up his heels like
two-year colt as he bounded over the
soft turf at the end of string attached
to kite that resombled an immense pair
of spectacles. He jabbered continually
in a language that seemed made up of
nothing but three or four words that
sounded like the monotonous tones of q
vigorously hammered gong to COM
panion who was footing an arrangement
meant to resemble an eel not less than
fifteen feet long. Another child of the
sun was Haunting n paper eagle with
plumage Of a faring yellow, and third
carried 4 peculiar looking eight sided
figure, which was probably made in i'm
itation Of some of the diagrams produced
by the early Chinese cmperors, some of
whom had mathematical pretcnsions.
Cua1rupeds, bipeds, and reptiles of
almost cry species were represented, all
being gaudily painted and decorated.
One ludicrous looking Monaghan, with
face Ike pumpkin with cash in the !
center of It, hung on to what looked like |
q Buddhist idol almost as ugly as HIM
self He seemed in high glee as tho
monstrous image fioated rap. dly upward,
its huge head and shoulders bobbing from
side to side, while its glass eyes seemed |
TO twinkle like stars as they now and |
then caught the rays Of the morning sun.
One low, broad -shouldered fellow had a
larger bundle than any of the rest and
went some distance off from the main |
crowd to open it. Five minutes later |
what seemed to lie a flock of hawks was
lowering over the yeilow-f faced heather,
their beaks and talors bent downward as
IL pre-, ared to alight on some object I'M
1eneath. They were all of paper, and
by an Ingenious continuance controlled
by one string.
For over an hour these queer gambols
were kept up, and then the kites were
'eca,led, and the owners, after again in
iulging in similar extravagant and fan
astic situations to those with which
hey began proceedings, disappeared as
quietly as they had come.
At first when this extraordinary scene
vas presented to the eyes of the wonder
ng scribe he became impressed with the
ica that the Cinnamon must have taken
cave Of their senses, and that some new